GEORGE Friend believes he has the Molineux ‘eggs’ factor – after his chicken-farmer father gave Wolves boss Mick McCarthy a cracking thank-you gift.

The young left-back was crowing when the Championship promotion hopefuls shelled out in the region of £300,000 to poach him from Exeter in August.

And his dad, Andrew, gave McCarthy dozens of eggs from his organic farm in Devon as a goodwill gesture.

“My dad used to work abroad for the UN and the Tearfund and he used to re-stock livestock, so he’s always been involved with agriculture,” said Friend.

“Then he came back and decided that chickens were a good way forward.

Layers

“He’s got about 125,000 chickens back on the farm, both table birds and layers so that’s what he does.

“When I was younger I used to help out a bit but as I’ve got a bit older football’s always got in the way of that.

“My brother works back there as well and he’s got his own businesses and he’ll keep it going I’m sure.”

Friend admits that his unusual background had led to some poultry banter from his new team-mates at Wolves’ Compton training base.

And the 20-year-old defender has even joined in with the yolks by warning his peckish pals not to crack on too much about chickens.

“When I signed my dad brought some eggs for the manager,” smiled Friend.

“He was happy and I think he asked for some chickens as well.

“I don’t know how I’m going to get those up here, though!

“The next week when my family came up to visit my dad gave me about five more trays to give out to everyone else.

“I was walking into training and I couldn’t see over the tray of eggs I had for everyone. They were much appreciated.

“Darren Ward, who’s on loan at Watford at the moment, is a big organic fan so I gave him a whole tray and he was over the moon.

“I get a little bit of banter, but it’s hardly something that you can be abused too much about. Obviously, I don’t want to crack on too much about it – sorry about the pun!”

George describes himself as a versatile left-back who likes to get forward rather than always being cooped up at the back. He could be forgiven for being in a fowl mood after getting into a scramble on his debut during Wolves 3-1 defeat at Swansea last weekend.

But Friend refuses to retreat into his shell and wants to have a regular crack at the Championship instead of warming the bench.

“The manager let me know that I was playing on the morning of the game when we had our meeting before we left for the ground,” he said.

“I was nervous, but they say a few nerves are good and I was confident I could do well.

“You can’t make excuses. I don’t think I had my best game.

“It’s hard when you’re coming in, but I hope to have a few more appearances and show the fans and the manager and the players what I can do.

“It’s a very young team, the average age is very low and you’ve got to be confident and believe in yourself that you can do it.

“Coming from a lower league you just try your best and hopefully I’ll succeed.

“It was a little bit daunting but I’d seen other lads had done it like Michael Kightly and George Elokobi so you’ve got to have faith and be ambitious.

“If a club like Wolves are willing to pay a bit of money for you then they must see something about you that they want.

“My next goal is to be a regular in the first term.

“You have to set goals you can achieve but also you have to be ambitious and strive.”